St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-09-07
Mayor Smith Not Pleased With
the Conduct Of the
Aldermen.
Col. Tom Lowry Visits st. Paul
and Talks Over Street Rail-
way Matters.
A Departure in the Signal
Sepviee---State Y. M. G. A.
bogus Butter.
THE POSTAL SERVICE.
Investigation by General Superin-
tendent Nash at the ST. Paul

tendent Nash at the ST. Paul
Office.
General Superintendent Nash, of the
railway postal service, has recently
been in st. Paul on a trip of inyeStiga-
ton. He returned to Washington on
Monday night. One object of his visit
was to look into the complaint of the re-
moved postal clerk, LongStadt of, La
Crosse. According to Supt. Perkins, of
st. Paul, the transfer clerk testified that
on Aug. Il LOng5tadt left his car at z
O'Clock in the morning and letters, pack
ages, etc, were scattered all around the
car. He did not show up even at IL
o'clock that day. Mir. Perkins said the
car cleaner refused to go into and clean
up the car, owing to its condition. A
telegram was received from Supt. White.
of Chicago, at this office on the
Goth ult., ordering the suspen-
sion of Mr.. Longstadt. After that
Longstadt made big kick, claiming
that he had left the car only tempo
rarily. Accordingly, Mr.. Nash came up
here to investigate, and Mr.. Perkins
says he returned well satisfied that
LOngstadt was not discharged without
reason, and the chief clerk added:
"ThingS have been going little crooked
over that route anyway, and we were
thinking Of putting an inspector on. A
letter with a note for collection in it was
found torn open i'll the car, and things
like that, you know Mr.. Perkins
showed two miSSent letters directed to
the Merchants bank of Sleepy Eye, and
left at Redfield. A Republican clerk, he
said, was running over this route, and
he had often told Postmaster Day that
the best thing to do would be to dis
charge the man. The banker. to whom
the letters were sent, wrote communi-
cation to the chief clerk, abusing the
administration because his two let
tiers We're misSent. Mr.. Perkins also
showed a ''kick" from a postal clerk in
a Mankato paper, in which the writer
thought the chief clerks zeal for Office
made him partial toward Democrats and
severe with Republicans.
ANOTHER COMPLAINT.
A postal clerk. who says he wants his
name withheld because if it were known
it would result i'll his discharge. has
written a somewhat lengthy communi-
cation to the GLOBE, in which he enters
complaint against Chief Perkins. He
says that the hours of work are long,
the nature OF the work trying and the
pay small He complains that the clerks
are not treated with courtesy and po-
likeness by the chief clerk. He says:
1.-The better Democrat a clerk is, the
more the superintendent jumps Oh
him." The writer further charges that
Mr.. Perkins conduct toward men who
are just learning the work is such that
the service is feeling the effects of it,
and all his subordinateS have come to
look upon him as am object to fear. He
says he writes ep behalf of large num-
Der of postal clerks, all of whom will
testify to the truth of his statements :
MIR. PERKINS STATEMENT. =.
In connection With the complaint and
the investigation, a GLOBE reporter in
terviewed several of the postal officials
of st. Paul. Chief Clerk Perkins said
IN his own defense:
what | want is a good clerk, and /
don't care whether he's a Republican or
a Democrat. | have 40 clerks under
me, and can't probably give any one
man a great deal of attention. [ think
that out of the old clerks there are
forty left. We have been wedding them
out, diScharging the poor clerks and
keeping the. good ones. The old clerks
who are now in the service are pretty
good men. The trouble is, a light
man is appointed for a heavy route,
and good man for light train. If we
had the appointment Of these men we
could make that all right, and where
man was appointed for heavy route
and was not physically able to take care
of it. we would give him a light route
and put a good capable man in his
place. But these appointments are all
made at Washington, and whenever
there is a vacancy the appointment
must be made in that congressional dis
trict. These men are appointed and go
on the road for six months on probation.
At the end OF that time they go through
an examination. Ii they are not sue
cesSful we can't help them. That's not
our fault. We've got to have good
service and must have good capable
men. 1t is generally those who don't
paSSa good examination who do the
most complaining. But the public de-
mands good service, no matter who is
on the route or who at the head.
Speaking with reference to the above,
r. II. Barclay. assistant to Mr.. Perkins,
Democratic appointee, said yesterday:
l have been under Mr.. Perkins for
some time, and haven't found him par
tial, severe or rough and abusive yet. 1
was appointed in March, 1856, and |
have been his assistant a for three months.
think that's long enough to get ac-
Quainted with him. l think Mr.. Per-
kinS is just with everybody. l don't
think he has favorite in the service.
l believe if a man tries to do his duty.
and shows that he is doing the best he
can, that he'll never have any trouble
with Mr.. Perkins. AS to the severity of
his examination, why, Eve been exam.
ined and can't say that I've had any
cause to grumble-I can't find any
reason to complain in his examination.
I've seen him make these examinations
for the last three months, and I've never
seen him show any partiality.
DIR. DAYS ASSISTANT.
Assistant Postmaster O'Brien said, in
answer to question by GLOBE re-
porter:
Perkins is all right. He is simply a
strict official and does his duty. He has
certain duty to perform and he's got
to do it. If anything goes wrong in his
territory he gets the blame. You know
there are some men that if you fur
nished them with dining car and a
sleeper and all they had to do was to
ride over the route, they'd kick because
you didn't give them champagne, too.
He don't discharge anybody. Whatever
he does is in obedience to orders from
headquarters. You see he's got lot of
men and he can't afford to be partial to
anyone. The trouble is with those fel-
lows who don't pass good examination.
But he's got to have good service,
and it man can't fill a position on the
route, he's no good that's all there is
about it. But that isn't Perkins fault.
ALI he wants IS a good man, and if the
man does his duty all right he'll have
no trouble.
superintendent of Mails o. H. Nee
gard, who succeeded Capt. Ed B Fan.
and has been in the service for six years
said:
From what personally know of Mr..
Perkins he is just the same with one
man as he is with another, no matter
what the mans politics is. l don't
think there is any Partially shown Mr..
Perkins is pretty; strict, but / think he
ought to be in his position. He treats